TAXI FUEL COSTS: Maths shows BIG SAVINGS remain between EV and diesel cabs despite energy increases

Taxi image credit: LEVC

Diesel versus electric. The cost of running a taxi has changed in recent years and continues to be hotly debated on taxi ranks and social media most days. But what are the actual fuel cost differences between running a TX4 and a LEVC TX?

It comes as no surprise that taxi drivers all work in different ways, so we’ll put a few different scenarios together and explain the workings out as we go. Some drivers will work the LEVC cab completely off the electric charge, some a mix of electric and petrol and there might even be a few mavericks out there who solely use the petrol range extender.

Let’s start with some of the vital facts...

The diesel LTC TX4 taxi manages 33.2 miles per gallon (mpg) at best. The LEVC TX running solely off petrol will manage 36.7mpg. To travel 150 miles in the TX4 you’ll need 4.52 gallons of fuel and in the TX (without the use of electricity) you’ll need 4.09 gallons of petrol.

Fuel prices currently stand at £1.50 per litre when filling up from the black pump, and £1.45 per litre from the green pump.

Based on these stats and prices the TX4 uses 20.55 litres to travel 150 miles per shift costing £30.82 a go. The TX uses 18.58 litres over the same distance costing £26.94 per shift. That’s a £3.88 saving equating to £1,034.66 over 40,000 miles.

Now let’s bring the electricity into the mix.

It costs on average around 15p per kWh to charge from home. Some will find better deals, some will be on worse tariffs, but this is a good ball-park figure to work from.

The LEVC TX has a 31kWh battery with approximately 28kWh usable. That would mean a home charge costs £4.20 per full charge. Using a public rapid-chargepoint costs more, currently on average £6.50 per full charge.

With these figures we can now work out the cost per mile for both the TX and TX4. As a LEVC TX owner myself, I know first-hand the electric range can fluctuate. It mainly depends on the temperature, but also other factors such as driving style and where you’re driving (i.e. fast motorway speeds) can impact the range too. That said, a middle of the road average of 55 miles per full charge is a conservative estimate.

With all this in mind we can now work out what it costs per mile for pure electric driving (both on home charge pricing and on the street), running on the petrol range-extender and on the TX4 diesel engine.

LEVC TX (Pure Electric Home Charge) 7.64p per mile

LEVC TX (Pure Electric Public Chargepoint) 11.82 per mile

LEVC TX (Petrol Range-Extender) 17.96p per mile

LTC TX4 (Diesel) 20.55p per mile

The table below breaks down five scenarios based on a 150-mile daily shift, working 5-days week, 28- days worked in a month, and 48-weeks worked over the year.

What have we learnt? As you would expect, there are big savings to be had from the LEVC TX. Cabbies charging at home just once per shift could be saving over £2,000 per year on fuel costs to their diesel driving colleagues. Over the five-year traditional lease period, a driver could see savings amounting to over £11,000.

For drivers who use the public charging network during a break in their shift, they can expect even greater savings. Annual savings of over £3,000 are calculated.

If you’re a full-time or high-mileage driver, the savings can strike out the higher initial vehicle costs in the long-run.